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Feb 16, 2012

Bleep Years day ten: Chemical Brothers: Galvanize (2004)

These Bleep Years years are randomly chosen, but most of them seem to be landing in the noughties. Anyhoo, hey boy blog reader, hey girl blog reader, here we go...

2004: Chemical Brothers: Galvanize

I consider the Grammy-winning Galvanize to be a great pop record, combining snappy vocals with the Chemicals' club aesthetic. It followed the duo's Singles 93-03 greatest hits album and it turned out to be their biggest hit of the decade.

It's one of those tracks I didn't stop listening to, and its blatantly commercial bent has no doubt been an influence on the short tracks I've been producing as Hounds Of Hulme. I pushed my own button in 2004 (oo-er missus) when I left the comfort of my bookshop in Manchester for a new challenge managing a shop in Macclesfield. One of the downsides was that commuting stifled a lot of DJ opportunities, and eventually led me to drop the 'DJ' bit from 'DJ Fat Roland'.

My time in Macclesfield, whilst spent with lovely people, stripped me to the bone on an emotional level. Other posts in this series will allude to more of that experience. I returned to working in Manchester spurred into action, ready to be myself again - very much, dare I say it, galvanised. See what I did there?

I also have fond memories of the band's blistering sets in the 1990s when they didn't so much as rock the beats' blocks as pin the beats up against a wall and kick them to death. Galvanise links the joy of the 1990s with my recovery from difficult times in the late noughties. In short, it's better living through Chemicals.